The present invention relates to a light system for a motor vehicle.
It is known that motor vehicle lights are parts that are costly and that are particularly vulnerable to impacts because of their locations on vehicles.
That drawback is due to two factors inherent in currently-used lights.
Firstly, such lights are constituted by self-contained units comprising a housing, a frame, one or more lamps mounted on the frame, and a cover glass placed in front of the lamps to close off the frame. Such self-contained units are mounted on the vehicle without any consideration being given to their own capability of deforming, when their surroundings deform. As a result, under certain circumstances, vehicle lights do not withstand the dimensional variations of their close surroundings, even when such variations are small, and so they break quite easily.
Secondly, since their structure is independent from their operating surroundings, motor vehicle lights cannot enjoy any complementarity with the pieces that surround them.
An object of the present invention is to provide a light system that is simple and low-cost, and that solves those problems in particular, as well as other problems that appear in the description below.
The present invention provides a lighting system for a motor vehicle, said lighting system comprising a frame suitable for supporting at least one lighting lamp, a housing containing the frame and its lamp, and a structural piece of the vehicle, which is suitable internally for supporting parts of the vehicle, and externally for supporting elements of the bodywork of the vehicle, said lighting system being characterized by the fact that the housing is an integral part of the structural piece, which, for this purpose, is provided with a bowl-shaped recess that can receive the frame and its lamp directly.
In a particular embodiment of the invention, the structural piece is a front quarter [quart-avant], as defined in French Patent Application FR-2 754 235.
Preferably, the structural piece is a structural node of the vehicle, i.e. it belongs to the overall framework of the vehicle.
Thus, the structural piece may interconnect an upper longitudinal member, a lower longitudinal member, the bumper crosspiece, and the upper crosspiece which supports the lock and the stop or the hinge of the hood.
In a first embodiment of the invention, the frame supporting the lamp(s) is constituted by a reflective dish which concentrates light rays coming from the lamps.
In a second embodiment, the frame is reduced to a single plate which may optionally support a reflective dish for concentrating the light rays.
The plate is preferably integrally molded, which improves its reliability and its strength, and prevents play from appearing, which could cause the proper setting of the lamps relative to one another to be lost.
In another particular embodiment of the invention, between the bowl-shaped recess and the bodywork, or between the bowl-shaped recess and a protective cover glass placed in front of the frame supporting the lamp, the lighting system includes sealing means which prevent dust, water, and any foreign particles from penetrating into the bowl-shaped recess.
In a first variant, the sealing means are constituted by a compressible gasket of the flexible tube type positioned at the periphery of the front edge of the bowl, and bearing against the bodywork or against the cover glass.
In a second variant, the sealing means are constituted by a bellows which encloses the front edge of the bowl-shaped recess and extends said recess to the bodywork or to the cover glass, against which the bellows abuts.
In the same embodiment, it is advantageous for the bowl-shaped recess to be sealed relative to the outside of the vehicle by means of a molded block of foam which prevents dust, water, and foreign particles from penetrating, while allowing air to flow through, which is essential given the considerable temperature variations that arise in the vicinity of the lighting system.
The block of foam may also provide an energy-absorption function, in particular for impacts with pedestrians.
The block of foam may be situated under the bowl-shaped recess or around said recess.
In a particular embodiment of the invention, the frame is mounted on a structural piece via self-releasing fastenings which, in the event that the vehicle is subjected to an impact, are suitable for releasing the frame so as to allow it to retreat, thereby protecting it from the stresses resulting from the impact and that could damage it.
In a particular variant of this embodiment, the self-releasing fastenings are constituted by snap-fastening means.
Such snap-fastening means offer the advantages of facilitating mounting the frame during vehicle assembly, of being of low cost to manufacture and to assemble, and of making it possible, when the frame retreats, to put said frame back in place without it being necessary to replace the fastening means.
The frame of the lighting system is provided with setting means which make it possible to set the elevation and the azimuth of the light beams coming from the lamps.
For this purpose, the frame may be mounted on pivot-mountings or ball-mountings.
In a preferred embodiment, the frame is provided with two ball-fastenings, one of which is fixed, while the other is mounted to move forwards and backwards, thereby enabling the frame to be pivoted about a vertical axis to set the azimuth of the light beams coming from the lamps, while the elevation can be set by pivoting the frame about a substantially horizontal axis passing through both of its ball-fastenings.
By choosing ball-fastenings in which the male portions and the female portions of said fastenings snap-fasten together, it is possible to obtain simultaneously not only the setting means, but also fastenings that are self-releasing as defined in the preceding embodiment.
For cost reasons, it is advantageous for the fastenings for fixing the frame to the structural piece to be standardized so that various frames can be mounted on various structural pieces. In addition, such standardization can make it possible for an entire family of vehicles to have the same frames, inserted into different structural pieces.
The frame of the lighting system of the invention is preferably organized to receive at least two lamps.
Since the two lamps are secured together via the frame, it is possible to provide a single setting system for the entire light unit.
In a particular embodiment of the invention, the lighting system includes a protective cover glass separated from the frame and secured to the bodywork or to the structural piece, in front of the frame supporting the lamps.
This embodiment offers the advantage that, in the event that the vehicle undergoes an impact, if the cover glass protecting the lamps of the lighting system is damaged, it can be replaced independently from the remainder of the lighting system, which is economically advantageous.
In addition, by fixing the cover glass to the bodywork directly, e.g. by adhesive, it is possible to obtain zero-clearance docking, which imparts a better finish to the bodywork, and does so at lower cost.
When adhesive is used, sealing of the lighting system relative to the outside environment of the vehicle is obtained simultaneously.
In addition, separating the cover glass from the support of the lighting lamps offers new design possibilities as regards the shape and disposition of the lights, in harmony with the shape and style of the bodywork of the vehicle.
In a particular embodiment, the cover glass is secured to the bodywork or to the structural piece via an intermediate piece which includes a self-releasing portion which makes it possible, in the event of impact, for the cover glass to retreat by destroying said intermediate piece.
In another particular variant, the cover glass is provided with snap-fastening shapes which co-operate with corresponding shapes on the bodywork, enabling the cover glass to be snap-fastened to the bodywork.
Thus, the cover glass can be put in place quickly and held firmly by snap-fastening shapes that are particularly robust because they are integrally molded with the cover glass.
In addition, this fixing mode offers the advantage of being disassemblable.